The word tumucumaque

BRAZILIAN president Fernando Henrique Cardoso created a stir last August when he announced the creation of Tumucumaque Mountains National Park, forged out of the Amazon rainforest in Amapá State in north-east Brazil.

The reserve, created jointly by government and environmental groups such as WWF and Conservation International, became the world's largest tropical national park. It took the title easily, covering 39,000 kilometres - an area larger than Belgium and more than 6 per cent bigger than the former number one, Salonga National Park in Africa. Brazil's government has promised to protect 10 per cent of the Amazon's forests, and Tumucumaque alone accounts for 1 per cent of the total.

Now the park has created a new wave of interest, after the Amazon Conservation Team unveiled the Tumucumaque map at the Brazilian embassy in Washington DC last month.

Why all the fuss about a map - with such a big park, ...

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